BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

It turns out L'Osservatore Romano did not come out with an 8/18 issue at all but is coming out Thursday with an 8/18-8/19 issue, from which this editorial is taken.

Benedict XVI pays tribute
to the wisdom and holiness
of a reforming Pope
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the 8/17-8/19 issue of


At the General Audience on Wednesday, Benedict XVI recalled the person and work of Pius X, the last predecessor of his who has been proclaimed a saint.



Papa Sarto was in fact beatified and canonized by Pope Pius XII around the halfway mark of the last century, with an evident new emphasis in contemporary history on the dimension of papal holiness, which has normally not been underscored in the Church of Rome.

But after the loss of temporal power by the Popes, Pius IX and Leo XIII gave the first impulses through a series of decrees confirming veneration of some medieval Popes.

The reading of St. Pius X given by his current successor is laden with meaning, in presenting the profile - historically founded and authentic - of a reforming Pope.

Thanks first of all to the pastoral distinction of his character, strong and gentle at the same time. Born unlike his immediate predecessors outside the limits of the Papal States which were already in decline, Giuseppe Sarto went through all the stages of a pastor of souls, and he was radically a pastor all his life, remote by upbringing and temperament from any temporalist nostalgia.

The reform of the Roman Curia and the initiation of canon law codification, the farsighted attention to the formation of priests and of the faithful, his wise custody of the liturgy, his concern for the doctrinal deposit of the faith and scientific examaination of it, were recalled by Benedict XVIu as the salient features of Papa Sarto's Pontificate - whose common trait, he underscored was the formative dimension.

His successor's reading of the reformatory and pastoral governance of Pius X finds great relevance in the future Pope's work as a parish priest and bishop for the renewal of catechetical instruction and his concern for the Christian education of children.

This emerged above all by the Pope's lowering the age for First Communion, bringing it down to age seven, "when the child starts to reason" as stated in the decree Quam singolari, whose 100th anniversary was recalled in this newspaper recently, through a reflection by Cardinal Canizares.

Also pastoral was Benedict XVI's reading of the most controversial aspect of Pius X's Pontificate, namely, his decisive condemnation of modernism - with emphasis on the defense of the faith in behalf of the simple folk, while advocating "a scientific examination of Revelation".

And all this while explaining that the holiness of Papa Sarto lay in his union with Christ.


I always think what a major exercise in humility and balance - guarding against false modesdty, on the one hand, and deserving pride, on the other - it must be for Benedict XVI to prepare his catecheses on the great and holy lives in the Church! Especially when the lives so closely resemble his own, not in the specifics, but in the major traits that distinguished the lives of saints like Augustine of Hippo and Benedict of Norcia, Bernard of Ciarvaux, Albertus Magnus, Anselm of Canterbury, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and after yesterday's catechesis, Pius X in his holiness and reform zeal.

BTW, I feel rather bad for Leo XIII, Benedict XV, and Pius XI, who apparently never had any cause for their sainthood initiated, though I hope I am wrong about this. Meanwhile, Pius IX and John XXIII have been beatified, Pius X was canonized, John Paul I and John Paul II are both one step away from beatification, Pius XII is one step behind them, and Paul VI is in the first stage of the process.

Some have questioned the 'rightness' of proposing dead Popes for sainthood, but why should they be discriminated against? By the very nature of who they are, they should possess holiness to a degree greater than ordinary Catholics. And since Popes lost their temporal power in the mid-19th century, the exercise of such power has been eliminated as a confounding factor to judge their personal holiness, which has not been questioned of any of the Popes starting with Pius IX...